Ever wondered what it was like, living an actor’s life? According to John Abraham, his life, at least, isn’t all that different from anyone else’s – and he’ll be proving it to you soon, with a show on NDTV Good Times called John Abraham: A Simple Life. This is a 4-part series which will take the audience into John Abraham’s personal space – to quote John, you’ll see him “eat, change, test his new motorcycle” and a whole lot more. We caught up with the actor recently to find out all about this new show, what he thinks are the simplest pleasures in life, and whose life he’d like to get a glimpse into.
Highlights:
“This series shows another side of John Abraham that no one has really seen before. We weren’t planning to make a show out of it, but when we saw the final edit, my friend – who actually directed this show, Vishal – and I were both excited about presenting this.”
“Mentally I’m not prepared to host a TV show. This is not my launch on TV, nor am I doing a television series. It’s just a one-off that I want to do for the lark of it. People follow you around and shoot you; every actor does it on a news channel. I’m just doing an extended version of that in a much better produced way. So I’m enjoying this space for a bit.”
“Someone asked me yesterday, ‘why do you wear chappals?’ I say, even this shirt must have been repeated in some other press conference, or maybe these pants. I’m sure on MissMalini you look at all these faux pas. But in my case, it’s not a faux pas, because I dress very basically. I don’t really have too many clothes, and I have no shame in saying it. I think we require very few things in life, and if we are content with a few things, we’ll be happier people… and I really want to lead my life that way. I want people to know me as John Abraham, the person.”
“I feel very upset when I don’t get to ride my motorcycle. Even right now, I’m thinking of the exhaust pipe of my motorcycle and why it’s not firing well. I like sports – I get upset when I miss a football match that I’d like to see. Outside of that, I get a little jittery when I don’t eat; I need to eat. Just simple things, you know. I think if I earned much lesser but I could eat my normal food and ride my motorcycle, I guess I would still be as happy. That only goes to say that probably money can’t buy happiness. I kind of agree that some amount of money can buy you close to it, but it also complicates your life. So just keep it simple.”
“One interesting person I’d like to see outside his space of work is Rahul Gandhi. He seems like a simple guy who has been pushed into this turmoil, and I wonder what his life is like outside of this space. He seems like a nice guy.”
The show will start on the 18th of November (Monday) and run through the 21st (Thursday), every night at 10pm on NDTV Good Times.
Pix: Khyati Gandhi for MissMalini